Rolling around in poo!

Four of a kind

Why does my yorkie always want to roll on top of other dogs poo? Even cattle poo.

More importantly, how can I prevent this from happening in the future? I can't take him off the lead in a park because he goes and immediately finds poo to roll around in.

candy69

one of our dog's does it in cow poo she tries to eat it! usually keep her on a lead when i'm passing but it's harder when you let them of. try putting your dog back on the lead every time he or she does it and tell them no. works with our's. don't know why they do it it's awful.

westies4ever

i've a westie does it too. everytime she goes to do it i tell her shes going for a 'bath'. she hates baths and knows what the word means yet she still does it. its a mystery!!

Chucken

http://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/why-does-my-dog-roll-in-poop

westies4ever

thats brilliant! funny it seems to be badger or rabbit poo that mine prefers! never other dog poo!

Chucken

To the dog, the smell is so wonderful that he wants to wear it like it as a perfume or something special!
They also are most likely trying to show us, and other dogs, how happy they are about what they found! We are supposed to be happy too! Kind of like a cat bringing dead animals to us to show their love!

gimmick

Do dogs "get" bad smells? Odd question I know but would like to know.

littlebug

Mine will roll in cow poo but eat cat or horse poo. Other dog poo and sheep poo just gets a good sniff.
it seems the best thing to roll in is dead bird remains.

ugh.

goat2

its a dogs way to hunt, wild animals have a great sense of smell, so the dog is always ready to hunt, they roll in poo to get their doggy smell down and not be smelled coming,
i have jrt and they dont stop at it, so i just accept it as their way

seamus

Thankfully my dog doesn't try to roll in poo....just eat it :-/

JRTs are demons for rolling in fox poo.

There's not really anything you can do to stop it except work on your heel and recall to keep the dog closer to you and get them to come back when you notice that they've spotted something "fun".

paultf

One of my dogs loves rolling in smelly stuff too. Washing her afterwards was not nice - I have to wear rubber gloves!

For a while I used to keep her on lead but it wasn't fair while the other dogs were having such good fun off-lead.

So the only solution I came up with was that she has to wear a dog coat off lead. She is used to it now. If she rolls in something then I simply throw the coat in the washing machine.

At the start I used an old coat but it wasn't good enough as it didn't cover her neck and back of head.

I got new coats for all the dogs from Zooplus last year for good wear! In the end I had to use one of them because they have a 'collar' that covers the back of the neck/head.

westies4ever

worst i ever had was on the beach in kerry this year - she rolled in the remains of a dead seal - urgh the stench!!!

OldNotWIse

Have one that does the same. She thinks other animals sh1t is the the best thing that ever happened to her.

I can't figure out why she hasn't made the connection yet - if you roll in the sh1t, mommy 1 is gonna bath you - every time! (which you hate) - ?

Though she's probably sitting thinking, "why haven't you made the connection yet? If you bath me, I'm gonna roll in the sh1t- every time!"

OldNotWIse

goat2 wrote: »

its a dogs way to hunt, wild animals have a great sense of smell, so the dog is always ready to hunt, they roll in poo to get their doggy smell down and not be smelled coming,
i have jrt and they dont stop at it, so i just accept it as their way

I've a jacker too and she's a demon for it! thanks for the info. now that you mention it, she does it when we are playing retrieve - so obviously she sees the game as hunting, so the sh1t bath before is to take down the doggy smell! Makes perfect sense

kylith

The only time one of mine rolled in poo was when they were staying with a friend of mine, so I didn't have to deal with it

mosi

My girl is terrible for it. One time I was in the woods with a few friends and she found some poo to roll in. She was completely covered in it and had a cloud of flies buzzing around her...thankfully, my family live near the woods so I didn't have to worry about sharing a tent with her!
Another time there was a dead rat on the path and she decided to roll in that too

belongtojazz

My youngest is divil for this, the stinkier the better. She went through a phase of doing it at the start of agility shows.... Baby wipes are a permanent fixture in my show back now